Originally posted on Monday, January 6th, 2014
Christians, worldwide, celebrate January 6th as “the feast of the Epiphany” … in commemoration of the “Three Wise Men” who followed a star and gave gifts to the infant Jesus. One of which, famously, was gold.
Shrine of the Magi, Cologne Cathedral, courtesy of Wikipedia
Who were the Magi? Wikipedia:
The word magi is the plural of Latin magus, borrowed from Greek μάγος magos,[10] as used in the original Greek text of the Gospel of Matthew (“μάγοι”). Greek magos itself is derived from Old Persian maguŝ from the Avestan magâunô, i.e., the religious caste into which Zoroaster was born, (see Yasna33.7: “ýâ sruyê parê magâunô” = “so I can be heard beyond Magi”). The term refers to the priestly casteof Zoroastrianism.[11] As part of their religion, these priests paid particular attention to the stars and gained an international reputation for astrology, which was at that time highly regarded as a science. Their religious practices and use of astrology caused derivatives of the term Magi to be applied to the occult in general and led to the English term magic, although Zoroastrianism was in fact strongly opposed to sorcery. The King James Version translates the term as wise men, the same translation is applied to the wise men led by Daniel of earlier Hebrew Scriptures (Daniel 2:48). The same word is given as sorcerer and sorcery when describing “Elymas the sorcerer” in Acts 13:6–11, and Simon Magus, considered a heretic by the early Church, in Acts 8:9–13. Several translations refer to the men outright as astrologers at Matthew Chapter 2….
Much lore has attached to the significance of the gifts. Wikipedia summarizes some of this:
Three gifts are explicitly identified in Matthew: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Many different theories of the meaning and symbolism of the gifts have been brought forward. While gold is fairly obviously explained, frankincense, and particularly myrrh, are much more obscure. See the previous section for who gave which.
The theories generally break down into two groups:
- All three gifts are ordinary offerings and gifts given to a king. Myrrh being commonly used as an anointing oil, frankincense as a perfume, and gold as a valuable.
- The three gifts had a spiritual meaning : gold as a symbol of kingship on earth, frankincense (an incense) as a symbol of deity, and myrrh (an embalming oil) as a symbol of death.
- This dates back to Origenin Contra Celsum: “gold, as to a king; myrrh, as to one who was mortal; and incense, as to a God.”[38]
- These interpretations are alluded to in the verses of the popular carol “We Three Kings” in which the magi describe their gifts. The last verse includes a summary of the interpretation: “Glorious now behold Him arise/King and God and sacrifice.”
- Sometimes this is described more generally as gold symbolizing virtue, frankincense symbolizing prayer, and myrrh symbolizing suffering.
It is not without interest that Keynes, a great polemicist, therefore would revert to sacerdotal metaphors in his successful (if perhaps only temporarily so) effort to “dethrone” gold from the center of the monetary universe. In concluding his 1930 essay Auri Sacra Fames, Keynes observed:
Thus gold, originally stationed in heaven with his consort silver, as Sun and Moon, having first doffed his sacred attributes and come to earth as an autocrat, may next descend to the sober status of a constitutional king with a cabinet of Banks; and it may never be necessary to proclaim a Republic. But this is not yet—the evolution may be quite otherwise. The friends of gold will have to be extremely wise and moderate if they are to avoid a Revolution.
The proponents of gold do not propound it as having mystical sacred qualities. As the BBC recently observed, however, that in addition to gold’s utilitarian virtues as the monetary unit, “But scarcity and stability aren’t the whole story. Gold has one other quality that makes it the stand-out contender for currency in the periodic table. Gold is… golden. All the other metals in the periodic table are silvery-coloured except for copper – and as we’ve already seen, copper corrodes, turning green when exposed to moist air. That makes gold very distinctive. ‘That’s the other secret of gold’s success as a currency … Gold is unbelievably beautiful.'”
Beauty is not an unattractive quality in money, pace Keynes.
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